Thesis Research Travel Award

FUNDING >> Thesis Research Travel Award

Departmental funds are available for thesis research-related travel made available through Graduate Program Award and a bequest made to the department by Carl Reinhardt. The travel awards are in support of presentations at academic conferences or workshops (paper or poster), scientific meetings with collaborators, observing runs, and data analysis. Note that funds are separately available through the Dunlap Institute Training Grant for professional development, training or educational activities. Typically, however, there is not overlap between the awards with attendance at CASCA excepted.

The Thesis Research Travel Award is provided as complementary funding for supervisor support. Your supervisor(s) are responsible to cover the full remainder unless additional resources are applied (e.g. SGS Conference Grant, or, UTGSU Conference Bursary). Supervisors are expected to factor thesis research-related travel costs into their doctoral supervisee budget planning. If a faculty member does not have sufficient grants available, this should be discussed with the associate chair, graduate.

Eligibility

To be considered within eligibility, applicants must:

Have completed the directed research series (direct-entry students) and finalized the thesis supervisor arrangement.
Be pursuing research travel directly related to their thesis. This may either be to advance thesis research or for a presentation of thesis work.
Be making satisfactory progress and meeting program requirements which includes the timely completion of milestones (e.g. qualifying exams) and fulfillment of supervisory committee meetings (for students in year 3 and above).
Be within 6 years of the direct-entry program or 5 years for the PhD 4-year track.
Register with the Safety Abroad Office for travel that is outside of Canada (including the US) in advance of the trip. Please see full details below.

Travel Award Calculations

A. Top Priority:

Observing/field trips on behalf of thesis research
Data analysis and reduction which cannot be done local

B. Medium Priority:

Travel to conferences/workshops to present a paper/poster on thesis research
Data analysis reduction which can be done more easily or efficiently elsewhere
Scientific meetings with collaborators

The initial maximum support per graduate student for each fiscal year (May 1 to April 30) is set at $1,000 and incremented to $2,500 after PhD candidacy is achieved (normally toward the beginning of the 3rd year direct-entry). In effect, this means that you could apply multiple times within each fiscal year and be reimbursed up to the maximum total for the period.

Travel Award Application

All applications for Thesis Research Travel Awards must be submitted at a minimum of one month prior to the travel start date, preferably much earlier. The award request should be made adjacent to your travel plans. Late applications received prior to travel, will be put on hold for consideration at the end of the academic fiscal year based on availability of funds. Requests submitted after the travel will not considered.

To apply, the student sends an email to their supervisor using the template below: copy and paste into email and fill in the applicable fields. The supervisor should then forward the request with their approval to astro.grad@utoronto.ca.

Please review the following before submission of the application.

Expenses that are covered:
Airfare: economy travel fare booked at minimum of three weeks advance.
Train fare: economy fare for travel under 4 hours; business class fare is permissible for train travel that exceeds 4 hours.
Ground connections: mass transit when available, taxi, Uber, Lyft, etc.
Conference fees: exclusive of banquet fees or membership registration.
Accommodation: competitive rate (double occupancy where applicable).
Visa fees
Meal per diem: cannot be claimed where meals are already included or provided by a host (banquets excepted if charged a fee see “Expenses that are not covered”). You should not claim the full per diem for partial travel days.

Expenses that are not covered:
Membership fees (in order to attend conference)
Banquet fees (should be offset through meal per diem)
Poster productions costs
Passport costs

Safety Abroad Registration (Mandatory for Travel Outside of Canada Including the US)

Please note per university policy that travel outside of Canada, including the US, requires registration with the Safety Abroad Office in advance of the trip. (Registration with the Safety Abroad Office and completion of a Safety Abroad workshop- within the last 18 months- is mandatory for all university-sponsored travel abroad.) Students travelling out of the country for any university-sponsored, endorsed, or funded trip (conference, research, collaboration, etc) and for any length of time, must register their trip in the Safety Abroad Registry. The graduate office will not give finalized approval of travel funding requests until registration is complete.  Students should list the graduate administrator as the “activity sponsor” when they register and the astro.grad@utoronto.ca email. This registration should be completed when the Research Travel Award request is made, or at minimum, two weeks before departure. Travel Award requests must follow the timeline of that policy (at least a month before travel); requests made without the Safety Abroad registration may only be conditionally approved subject to receiving notification of registration.  Students who cannot register their trip in this portal should email safety.abroad@utoronto.ca with the graduate administrator copied. Failure to register through Safety Abroad will mean that there will be no guarantee of reimbursement for the trip through departmental funds. Plan well in advance to ensure that you have completed any necessary steps that may include a pre-departure workshop and obtaining proof of travel health insurance coverage.

Please keep up to date on the Travel Advice and Advisories for your destination and any transit points. For travel to countries classified as a high-risk level, the department would need to evaluate whether the risks were proportionate to academic necessity, and ultimately it would be contingent on approval from the Safety Abroad Office.

Reimbursement

Please submit your reimbursement claim to our financial officer within 30 days after the activity has concluded. Note that you only need to submit one reimbursement form. The department and supervisor contributions will be applied to the charges accordingly.

Travel outside of Canada that is conducted without prior completion of all Safety Abroad requirements may render students ineligible for the reimbursement.